76 MUSICAL EVENTS T I e M erimee Perspective T HE dramcttic force of Bizet's " c " ' armen, an opera L-om,zque done very often, and seldom very \-vell, is most potently released in a small theatre, by a cast of actors who share the language of the audience. In most large opera houses the casts are . . 1 " c " b Internatlona , yet armen cannot e denied to them, an) more than "Don G . ." " F ' d 1 ." d lovannl, I e 10, an man) an- other work more striking in smaller space-for then most big cities would h " c " d b . ave no annen, an most Ig com- panies would run short of the popular repertory they need to keep going at all. However, since these major companies command the major interpreters, the) can start with a different advantage, and by it overcome the space handicap and the language barrier, both of which reduce the impact of a piece that was meant, above all things, to be emo- tionally direct. These familiar re- flectIons are fresh-prompted b) the Metropolitan's new presentation of "Carmen," which is boldly and intel- ligentl) addressed to just such prob- lems. Other, special problems were in- volved, too. The hasic cast had been determined, if unwittingly, b} Sir Ru- dolf Bing, who had engaged Marilyn Horne, James McCracken, and Ton1 Krause for a revival of "T annhåusel ." Goeran Gentele, prefernng to open his new regilne with a new show, switched them to "Carmen." Befol e his death he had plotted the production that has now been executed in detail b} Bodo Igesz. Me Gentele's aim was not a "spectacular" such as Kara jan mounted in Salzburg (where the hero- ine summoned a corps de ballet to sup- port her intÏtnate dance in .A.ct II); . 11 I . " c ". b Vlsua y t 11S armen IS so er: no horses, no bulls, not even a donke,. Three things make it unusual-things that have been tried before, hut nevel all at once in a large-scale presentation. Guiraud's intrusive recitatives have been scrapped in favor of the spoken dialogue of the onginal. A dozen or more passages of mUSIC that were cut before the first performance of 1875 have been reinstated. And an attempt has been Inade to reëstablish the "Mérimée perspective," which places Don J osé Lizarrabengoa, rather than the titular heroine, at the center of the drama. The curtain rISeS in mid-prelude, and as the Fate motIf surges from the pit J osé is revealed on the darkened iJ 1 \ J , L- "ilnd I'll have the sole amandzne, but hold the nuts )) SEPTEMDER 30, 1 972. stage, staring with wild surmise Into the blackness; then he disappears amid the bright bustle of the opening chorus. At the final curtain he is again alone, with Carn1en's corpse, on an en1pty stage: no crowd, no Escamillo, just a single row of heads high above, peering ovel the 1 Ï1n of the bullring. He i" hrought into similar prominence during several Inomen ts that traditional1y "belong" to CarmLn. The "Habanera" is al- n10st a duet, with J osé's line in dUlnb- 1 I d . I " S ' snow. t contra ICts t 1e text ( 1 tu ne Ill'aimes pas, je t'aime"-but this J osé is visibly panting with love), contra- dicts the direction that J osé should re- main indifferent to the song, and the implication that it i" his ver} indiffel- ence which piques Cat men's interest. The snatch of dialogue beforL the flower is thrown (""\That are ) ou doing there?" "Making 'ì chain for In} fi ring-pin" "Firing-pin indeed . . . Firer of my soul") is not restol ed; at the Fate Inotif the lights din1 to a glow around Carlnen, another round J osé Something is lost by this handling of the "Habanera; " instead, we learn that J osé W'1S lost fron1 the moment he set eyes on his démon. .l\.t the close of the act J osé posi- tively ensures Carmen's escape, barring the way to her pursuers The restored dialogue remInds us that he has fled Navarre and joined the Army because in quart e] he killed a man; indeed, the text has been rewritten to make this Inore evident than in Meilhac's and Halévy's origina1. (In Mérimee's tale, he also kills Carmen's husband, and the lieutenant.) The man'" violence is stressed. He handles Carmen roughly. In the duel he goes for the elegant torero like a maddened, blundering bull (their duet, though shortened, still con talns some of the weakest music in the opera, but is very well staged). Mr. McCracken is good at this. In "Gtello" he has often conveyed the sense of violence scarce-checked, slnol- dering beneath a heavy surface until suddLn]y it breaks through. VerdI spoke lightingI) of "Carmen," but his Othel- lo borrowed features of Don J osé ; the S'1Ine singers-Zenatello, Martinel- li, in our da} Jon Vickers and Mr. McCracken-have often excel1ed in both roles. Mr McCracken's J osé was forcefuJ and passionate-a powerful interpretation, powerfull) sung. The tin1hre was fierv, the phrasing ham- mered to keenness. Connoisseurs at the old Opera-Comique used to classify their favorites by the executIon of the " FI S ' " . -" ower ong s peroratIon: en tete or en poitrine (most favored of al] were tenors who commanded both